Grand Canyon earned victories over Seattle University and Loyola Marymount in their home opener this weekend. The Grand Canyon women beat Seattle 120-84 and Loyola 123-79. The GCU men topped Seattle 136-68. The Seattle women split the tri-meet, as they beat LMU 120-84.
Grand Canyon:
PHOENIX – The Grand Canyon University men’s and women’s swimming teams earned strong victories over Seattle U and Loyola Marymount today out at Southwest Valley Family YMCA. The men defeated Seattle U 136-68. The women won their meet over Seattle U 120-84 and over Loyola Marymount 123-79.
“This was a very good meet for both the men and the women,” said head coach Steve Schaffer. “The women’s team really stepped up to raced well today. On paper, this meet much was closer than the end result showed and that’s because our girls raced very, very well.”
The team opened the meet with a first place finish in the 400-medley relay with a time of 3:51.69. It consisted of Iryna Glavnyk, Vangelina Draganova, Rebecca Coan, and Samiha Mohsen.
In both the 50-free and 100-free, Jovanna Koens took the top times of 23.96 and 53.21, respectively. Mohsen was the runner-up in the 50-free (24.03). She also earned the top slot in the 100-back (58.70).
Rebecca Coan had a time of 57.38 to lead in the 100-butterfly. Glavnyk picked up two top-finishes in the 200-free (1:55.10) and 500-free (5:15.71). Yara Fakhry finished second in the 400-IM (4:26.90), while Kathleen Robertson recorded a second place finish in the 100-back with a time of 1:06.15.
GCU closed out the meet with a runner-up finish in the 200-free relay (3:35.02) by Angelina Mikish, Rebecca Coan, Petya Dimova, and Jovanna Koens.
“The men knew they had the meet well in hand, but they kept their heads in the meet and focused on racing skills and put up some very good times for this point in the season,” said Schaffer. “With the meet with a very good Air Force team coming up in two weeks they need to keep stepping up their racing.”
GCU started the meet by taking the top-two times in the 400-medley relay. With a time of 3:25.11, Trent Trump, Youssef Elkamash, Illya Glazunov, and Mazen Elkamash finished first. Jacob Lambros, Mantas Auruskevicius, Tanner Brotherton, and Mark Nikolaev had a time of 3:27.30 as the runners-up.
Trump and Nikolaev finished first and second, respectively, in the 200-free with time of 1:45.68 and 1:46.32.
The Lopes took the top-four times in the 50-free. Glaznuov placed first with a time of 20.59 and Mazen Elkamash finished second at 21.02. Lambros and Daniil Antipov took third and fourth, respectively.
Iegor Lytvenok earned another pair of first place finishes. The first was in the 400-IM (3:55.55) and the second in the 100-back (49.68). In the 400-IM, Antipov and Trent Godfreyeach placed second (3:58.03) and third (4:13.72), respectively. Nikolaev also placed second in the 100-back (49.84).
Brotherton took first place in the 100-free with a time of 47.11, followed closely by Youssef Elkamash at 27.86. Youssef Elkamash took the top time in the 100-breast (56.40), while Godfrey had a time of 4:47.73 in the 500-free, also placing first.
Rounding out the final scores was the 400-free relay, which Grand Canyon took the top-two slots in. Iegor Lytvenok, Connor Shores , Tanner Brotherton, and Jacob Lambros had a time of 3:05.61 for first. Mazen Elkamash, Owen Cameron, Trent Godfrey, and Illya Glazunov were close behind at 3:06.16.
“I was actually a bit surprised at how many times were season bests and well ahead of where we were at this time last year,” concluded Schaffer. “Everyone is adapting well to the training and it should give everyone a lot of confidence as we prepare for our big mid-season meets at the Northwestern TYR Invitational and US Winter Nationals.”
The GCU swimming teams will continue the competition tomorrow in Goodyear, with both teams facing Seattle U for the second time and the women squaring off with Loyola Marymount. The meet will begin at 11 a.m. Links to live stats as well as a full recap will be available at www.gculopes.com.
Swimming news courtesy of Grand Canyon Swimming & Diving.
Seattle University:
The Seattle University women’s swim team continued to post fast times, as the Redhawks split Friday’s double dual meet at the Southwest Valley Family YMCA, defeating Loyola Marymount, 109-96, but losing to host Grand Canyon, 120-84.
Blaise Wittenauer-Lee (Portland, Ore.) picked up two individual victories for the Redhawks, starting with a convincing win in the 400 individual medley, posting a time of 4:26.90, over 13 seconds ahead of the second place finisher. The Redhawks finished 1-3-4 in the event, with Kate Sabourin (Santa Rosa, Calif.) finishing third in 4:41.89, followed by Sidney Pinger (Tualatin, Ore.) in fourth place in 4:42.29.
Wittenauer-Lee also touched the wall first in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:04.49, a half-second quicker than the mark she posted in last Thursday’s meet and over one-and-a-half seconds faster than her nearest competitor. In addition, she posted the fastest 100 breaststroke split of 1:04.33 in the 400 medley relay, joining with Katie Rottman (Phoenix, Ariz.), Jane Liggett(Portland, Ore.), and Paige Treff (Orland, Calif.) to finish second in 3:56.09, lowering the eighth-fastest time in the event in program history.
Madi Lydig (Spokane, Wash.) picked up Seattle U’s other individual win in the meet, cruising to a victory in the 1000 freestyle with a time of 10:47.03, 5.7 seconds in front of the runner-up.
Kristin Hoffman (Mercer Island, Wash.) enjoyed a solid meet, first finishing in second place in the 200 freestyle with a season-best time of 1:55.80, and then she finished third in the 100 freestyle, also posting a season-best mark of 53.89 seconds. She anchored the 400 freestyle relay, joining with Treff, Emily Gough (San Clemente, Calif.), and Maddie Dickman (Sacramento, Calif.) to help the Redhawks finish third in 3:36.64, 10th-best on Seattle U’s all-time top times list in the event.
Treff finished third in the 50 freestyle in 24.08 seconds, 1/10th of a second quicker than the mark she posted last week. Dickman also shaved some time off last week’s effort in the 100 backstroke, finishing fourth with a mark of 1:01.02, just ahead of Rottman in fifth place with a time of 1:01.33.
Seattle University (3-1) will face Grand Canyon and Loyola Marymount once again in another double-dual meet Saturday, Oct. 24, at 11 a.m.
Swimming news courtesy of Seattle Swimming & Diving.
